Patrik Siwek The Apple Watch Series 4 brings a very important feature that could help millions of people around the world, but unfortunately it will only help those in the US for now. The novelty contains a special sensor in the digital crown, with which, in combination with electrodes, the Apple Watch can create a so-called electrocardiogram, or simply put, an ECG. The reason why Apple refers to this function as ECG is just for translation, where while in Europe the German term AKG is used, in the US it is ECG, otherwise you don't have to worry about it being something other than a classic ECG. Why is this feature so essential in Apple Watch?
If you have ever been treated for heart disease or even just high blood pressure, then you know that there is a so-called Holter test. This is a special device that the doctor gives you at home for 24 hours and you have it attached to your body the whole time. Thanks to this, it is possible to evaluate the results for a full 24 hours, with the doctor then praying that on the day you had the holter test, your heart defect would manifest itself. So-called cardiac arrhythmias, weakness or anything else only manifests itself from time to time and is usually very difficult to monitor. If you feel heart weakness right now, before you get in the car and drive to the doctor, it is possible that he will not record anything on his devices and thus cannot evaluate your problem.
However, if you have an Apple watch Series 4, whenever you feel weak or feel like something is going on with your heart, you can press the digital crown and record your heart activity on the same graph that your doctor's device can do. Of course, Apple isn't kidding that you have a billion-dollar device on your hands that will cure your illnesses or detect them better than hospital equipment. On the contrary, it bets on the fact that you always have your Apple Watch on your hand and you can measure the ECG at the moment when you don't feel well and you feel that something unusual might be happening with your heart.
The Apple Watch will then send the graphs measured on its ECG directly to your doctor, who can assess, based on the measured values, whether everything is fine or whether further examinations or even treatment are needed. Unfortunately, there is one big but that prevents this amazing feature from being shown to the whole world, but only to US users for now. Apple has stated that this feature will only be available in the US later this year. Tim Cook subsequently added that he hopes it will soon spread around the world, but words are one thing and what is on paper, so to speak, is another. Unfortunately, the latter speaks clearly, and while the company proudly boasts of this feature on the US Apple.com site, there is not a word about the feature on any other language mutations of Apple's website. Not even in countries like Canada, Britain or China, which are important markets for Apple.
The problem is that Apple had to get the feature approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration, or FDA. Apple will need the same approval in every single country it wants to introduce the feature, and that could take years. Unfortunately, Apple will only offer the function for American users and the question is how it will be blocked in other countries. It's possible that if you buy the watch in the US, then the feature will work for you in the US, but it also may not, which is not yet clear at this time. However, if you buy a watch anywhere other than the USA, then you will not have the EKG function, and the question is how long it will take before we see it in our parts. The Apple Watch with ECG is thus another function that is great, but unfortunately it ranks next to Apple Pay, Siri or, for example, Homepod, and we simply don't enjoy it very much.
Constant monitoring of your health is a diagnosis.
Will it be different HW for the EU and the world, or only SW modification/blocking?
I would also be interested in that - if it pays for them to make 2 variants for the US market and the rest of the world
or it will be the same HW and just the SW will not be available
I secretly hope it's just a SW limitation
That's shit .. these things should be sold cheaper here, even the iphone itself (siri, apple pay, news …….. ) . I'm only asking for services that are somehow not available to us .. (I don't understand that it is possible to use Siri in EN, but to write the results of the match, etc.) .. so everyone who buys these devices contributes to the country where this function works and is constantly being improved ..
– in my opinion, this is a pretty big scam
Since this is a function that is subject to registration worldwide, I'm not surprised that if they only have it from the FDA, they can't let it go. I just find it ridiculous that with their billions in their accounts and such an employee representative they can't do such a trivial thing. And for those who know something about EKG, a 3-lead EKG is hardly sufficient only for vital function monitoring (heart beats yes/no, no joke) and not for heart diagnosis. Here we are talking about only 2 leads and that's even in tricky places .. the wrist and the end of the index finger. I believe that the ECG results from the iwatch will be very, very rough and far away from the real ECG curve. I guess it will be of no use and I am looking forward to a real comparison that someone from clinical practice will surely make.
Apple watch contributes to the development of hypochondria in many individuals.